Sen. Mike Lee on Thursday argued that Americans will oppose the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the individual mandate of President Barack Obama’s health care law when they understand that it’s a tax, and saying further that the historic decision will be a “huge boon” for Mitt Romney.

“This ruling today, while not the one that I wanted or expected, will prove to be a victory for the individual mandate that is fleeting and is short-lived and really illusory,” the Utah Republican said on Fox News moments after the high court’s ruling. “They said they’re able to sustain it only by shoehorning it quite awkwardly into Congress’s taxing authority. But most Americans who don’t like the individual mandate already will like it even less when they understand that it’s a tax.”

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Lee, a former clerk to Justice Samuel Alito who attended the oral arguments before the Supreme Court in March, warned that anyone who supports the individual mandate will suffer “tremendous political consequences” and “political peril.”

The senator added that if there is one Republican who will benefit from Thursday’s ruling, it’s Romney.

“This is a huge boon to the campaign of Mitt Romney. The American people will be flocking around him saying we don’t want new taxes. We especially don’t want new taxes on the poor, and that’s what this does,” he said.

The Supreme Court ruled that Congress did not overstep its power by requiring almost all Americans to buy health insurance. The justices decided that Congress has authority to impose the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate using its taxing power.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) also expressed his anger at Democrats, attacking the president and his party for having “lied” during the health care debate.

“President Obama looked the camera in the eye and said we are not taxing you,” the senator said in a separate interview on Fox News. “Every Democrat on the floor of the Senate in the debate said, this is not a tax. If it had been seen as a tax, they won’t have gotten 10 votes, much less 60. … They either don’t know what they are doing or they lied to us.”

He encouraged Republicans to challenge every Democrat to acknowledge that the Affordable Care Act is a tax and repeal the bill if they refuse to do so.

“The president of the United States should explain himself,” he added. “Why did he take the presidential podium and assure us all we were not using the power to tax? The reason he said that is because he knew he couldn’t pass this bill.”

But at least one Republican senator stopped short of calling Democrats dishonest in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision.

Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine tried to draw the attention away from some of her colleagues’ accusation that Obama had lied about whether the Affordable Care Act would impose a tax on the American people.

“Whether it’s a penalty or a tax, it’s all one in the same,” the moderate Republican said on CNN. “It’s coming out of somebody’s hard-earned money in their pocketbooks and that’s the point. So in some ways, to me, it’s a distinction without a difference. They have to pay for it and it’s a hard, fast penalty that’s going to be very expensive to a lot of people.”

You tax cigarettes. You tax liiquor. You tax us for clean air. You tax us for gasoline.

You tax us for phones, airplane rides subway rides, and just about anything in the known universe.

Do you maximize revenues for the American people. I KNOW NOT. You send our GIs to die and get maimed but you sit on nuclear weapons that would end wars in minutes.

You pay tribute to China and Saudi Arabia and Iran and do nothing in collecting the spoils of war in

Afghanistan and Iraq. You claim to be a conservative but you are a liberral in BS clothing. The whole bunch of you congresspeople do nothing but collect our tax money and then you all get public health insurance. But you would deny it to others. You should be ashamed.

You tax cigarettes. You tax liiquor. You tax us for clean air. You tax us for gasoline.

You tax us for phones, airplane rides subway rides, and just about anything in the known universe.

Do you maximize revenues for the American people. I KNOW NOT. You send our GIs to die and get maimed but you sit on nuclear weapons that would end wars in minutes.

You pay tribute to China and Saudi Arabia and Iran and do nothing in collecting the spoils of war in

Afghanistan and Iraq. You claim to be a conservative but you are a liberral in BS clothing. The whole bunch of you congresspeople do nothing but collect our tax money and then you all get public health insurance. But you would deny it to others. You should be ashamed.

The individual mandate of the PPACA has been determined by the Supreme Court to be Constitutional because it is a tax. It will certainly affect the poorest among us who can't afford healthcare now. What makes anyone think that requiring health insurers to provide healthcare to everyone will lower those costs and be affordable by the poor now? I am not talking about people who are already eligible for medicaid because they are poor, but the working poor who make just too much money to be covered by medicaid but can barely pay their bills. Where are these people going to get the money necessary to pay for healthcare? It has already been proven that health insurance rates are not going to decrease, so how can they afford it later if they can't afford it now?

I personally have no problem with the law. Again I say personally. Because I have a healthcare plan already and the law will allow me to keep my kids on the plan longer and not penalize them for any pre-existing conditions they may have when they are no longer eligible to be on my plan. Those are good things. I do feel sorry for the millions of Americans who don't have healthcare now because they can't afford it, and not will have to pay a tax to the government because they still won't be able to afford it.

I said yesterday that I wanted the law to be upheld so that we have a clear choice to make in November. If Obama wins and the ACA becomes fully implemented the reality will soon set in about how bad this law is and the democrats will spend a long time out of power as a result. I predict thai act will be the most unpopular law passed since prohibition.

"We especially don’t want new taxes on the poor, and that’s what this does,” he said.

Hold on. Isn't one of the most parotted talking points for conservatives that 47% of Americans don't pay taxes? By which they mean federal income tax since, well, the poor are too poor to pay it or don't have, you know, "income."

And to directly quote Senator Lee's own website on the types of tax reform he would support: "There are a number of proposals I agree with in principle that would simplify the federal tax code. For example, a consumption tax and a flat income tax would vastly reduce the compliance burden on taxpayers." (http://www.lee.senate.gov/pub...

But wait, isn't the only way a consumption tax and flat income tax "reduce the compliance burden on taxpayers" by increasing the burden on the poor and less privileged?

Let me get this straight: Requiring health insurance for everyone=bad. Getting rid of food stamps, public transportation, home energy assistance, and pretty much any public assistance for the underprivileged=good.

Got it. Just trying to get my talking points in order. Let me write it down so I don't forget...

THIS AIR HEAD STUDIED LAW? i WONDER HOW SOME OF THESE PEOPLE FIND THEIR WAY INTO THE US CONGRESS. AND WHAT WOULD A RIGHT WING REPUBLICAN DO OR SAY WITHOUT MAKING A THREAT TO OTHERS, even those of them that are law men? AMAZING.CONGRATULATIONS JUSTICE ROBERTS ON HEALTH CARE DECISION. In my estimation, Justice Roberts has partially redeemed his credibility as a scholar of law. I say "partially" because of the bad decision of Citizens United and the consequences of that decision as we now more clearly see it. Roberts has returned to the wisdom of Solomon--and I applaud him for it! THE SUPREME COURT WILL HENCEFORTH EARN THE CONFIDENCE AND RESPECT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!!! The clueless FOX NEWS and CNN (with the likes of John King and Wolf Blitzer mouthing off on the wrong tangent) were already talking about a "big blow to the President" without first reading and understanding the decision. That shows you how the "mighty" CNN has fallen. Shameful on their part! Again, I congratulate Justice Roberts and his team on this!!! This decision is also a moral decision. Finally, it is IRONIC THAT REPUBLICAN LEADERS ARE THE ONES NOW OPPOSED TO THE LAW. They have usually propagandized the ACA as unconstitutional. Now that ACA is declared constitutional, they are fighting the Law.

CAROLINAUNC.....#8....OMG!!!..how long have you been on this planet?...Roberts was OK with Citizens United....but now you advocate term limits for the Supreme Court?.... WOW.....do you know anything about the Supreme Court?....how manys years this institution has made decisions for this country and can you figure out for everyone single one only 1/2 of the country was pleased? This is a democracy, airhead, and fortunately for us it is the best there is. Live with it.

There is no doubt this law will be tweaked. But what a great feeling for those suffering from cancer, or cancer survivors. Your fate no longer will be left in the hands of BIG CORPORATE insurance companies. You are guaranteed coverage! Those CAPS are now gone!!!

For our senior citizens on fixed incomes...that doughnut hole will close...No more Third and Fourth quarter blues. No more will you have to make the choice on your prescriptions or food.

For those of you that don't believe in this law...May you never have a child, sibling, spouse or parent with a life threatening disease without this law. YOU will learn like many Americans what it's like to be insignificant and left to die because INSURANCE COMPANIES SAY SO.